The art of bookbinding for the purpose of protecting books and enhancing their appearance has been practiced over several centuries by sewing together several quires onto bands or cords which are joined to paperboard plats covering the sides of the book by means of a back of leather or cloth which covers the seams and at least a part of the plats, inside which are subsequently glued ornamental end-papers, the plats themselves being covered with various kinds of decorative material.
This traditional manual method has been approximately reproduced by industrialized bookbinding methods using time-saving simplified procedures which are effective for keeping production costs down but result in rather low-grade products having a short lifetime.
The main body of the book, being formed of sewn quires, is thus prepared separately before being inserted and glued into a cover formed of the plats and the back.
On another hand, the backs of the books having this type of binding are usually provided with a strong paperboard lining for giving them some stiffness, with the result that the books cannot readily be opened flat. This causes an inconvenience for reading and also for making photographic reproductions.
A different type of bookbinding has been used in antiquity, and more particularly in Ethiopian antiquity, in which the seams and cords of the binding remain apparent and are not covered. This type of binding makes a flat opening possible, and provides for a strong resistance, but it brings about protrusions on the plats, along the passages of the cords or bands, while these remain unprotected. As a result, the shelving and handling of books causes a gradual deterioration of the cords as well as a deterioration of the plats of adjacent books on shelves. On another hand, this ancient method can only apply to books made of parchment, the intrinsic strength of which allows the protection along the back to be omitted.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a bookbinding which will avoid the drawbacks of these earlier systems and which will lend itself to the industrial production of high-grade products having a high resistance against wear and tear as well as a great flexibility of opening, together with an attractive appearance and a moderate production cost.